1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to materials handling systems such as order processing systems and, more particularly, to visual verification of order processing in materials handling facilities.
2. Description of the Related Art
The increasing scope of electronic commerce, fueled by the ubiquity of personal computers, the Internet, and the World Wide Web, has resulted in striking changes to the number of options open to customers to shop and pay for products. Virtual storefronts allow customers to view product information including features, specifications, appearance, pricing and availability from their own homes or offices. Such virtual storefronts have become commonplace even among wholesalers and retailers who may still maintain physical customer presences (i.e., brick-and-mortar storefronts). Many companies conduct business exclusively through virtual storefronts without maintaining any other form of customer presence, such as a physical storefront. Electronic commerce using virtual storefronts offers many advantages, such as lower cost overhead (e.g., due to lack of sales personnel, lack of physical storefronts, highly automated ordering processes, etc.), and a potential customer base limited only by the reach of the Internet.
Retailers, wholesalers, and other product distributors (which may collectively be referred to as distributors) typically maintain an inventory of items that may be ordered by clients or customers. This inventory may be maintained and processed at an order fulfillment center which may include, but is not limited to, one or more of: warehouses, distribution centers, cross-docking facilities, packaging facilities, shipping facilities, or other facilities or combinations of facilities for performing one or more functions of materials (e.g., inventory) handling. An order fulfillment center may also process and ship orders for one or more merchants.
Traditionally the first notification a customer received after placing an order was when the order arrived. With the increasing use of email, some merchants send email messages informing customers that their orders have shipped. Frequently, however, these notification emails are sent automatically by a computer system in response to the customer placing an order and do not actually correspond to the processing or shipping of the order. A common scenario is for a customer to place an order, receive an email saying that the order has been shipped (or will be shipped shortly), only to later learn of a problem preventing the order from shipping, such as an item not currently in stock. Sometimes an order may arrive, but one or more items of the order could not be shipped at the same time and are therefore missing from the shipment. Often the customer receives an automatic notification email very quickly after placing an order, but only learns of problems with the order days later, frequently via regular mail. Also, such notification emails typically do not provide any means for a customer to verify that his order is truly on it way. Nor do such notification emails typically convey any means for a customer to verify that his order includes the correct items, was properly addressed, or that items are shipped in the proper condition, etc. Merchants may include a carrier or shipping tracking ID in notification emails, which helps reassure customers that some package is on the way, but does not indicate what is being shipped. Additionally, not all shipping methods provide tracking IDs. Thus, notification messages often do little to instill confidence within customers that their orders were properly processed and shipped. Consequently, customers increasingly have little or no confidence in such notification emails.
Merchants may also include flyers or other advertisements, frequently for third parties, when packing and shipping orders. Generally, third parties can only verify that such advertisements are correctly included with orders by making random inspections of order processing locations. Additionally, merchants traditionally have difficulty verifying customer complaints regarding the processing and shipping of orders. Customers may complain of missing or damaged items and the merchant or supplier generally must take the customer's word regarding what items where included in an order and how those items where packaged. Additionally, merchants generally have difficulty determining whether damage to an item resulted from a packing or shipping problem.